How to Avoid Deceiving Ourselves
BY TOM HOLT
The Book of James is labeled by many theologians as the New Testament Proverbs. In a way, they are right. Through it, God gives us a series of practical guidelines for Christian living. What is more important, though, is that in this book God repeatedly admonishes churchgoers not to take their salvation for granted.James 1:17-27 We find this warning clearly stated in Chapter Two. In verse 14 God asks rhetorically: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" In verse 17 He says, "faith, if it hath not works, is dead," and in verse 26, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." A dead faith, of course, is a faith that does not bring eternal life.
In a less conspicuous manner, God gives this admonition in the rest of this epistle as well. A good example is the second half of the first chapter, which I am using for this message. Let's start with verses 19-21:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.On the surface, this paragraph is just telling Christians how to behave. Be a good listener. Don't talk too much, and don't get angry easily. And get rid of the filthiness and naughtiness that were in the old you. But the context in which this passage appears shows that there is a more important spiritual message here.Note that both sentences begin with the conjunction "Wherefore". Meaning: In both cases, there's a cause-and-effect link between what has just been said and what is being said. In verse 18 James has noted that we have been given a new birth with the word of truth; and here in verse 21 his concluding command is for us to receive the word with meekness. We can thus see that this whole passage is teaching us how we are to relate to the word of God.
Intense interest. With that in mind, we can now understand that in verse 19 God is telling Christians to be swift to hear His word. The word "swift" implies having an interest to find out quickly. Have you ever read a novel that is so captivating that you simply cannot put it down even though it's dinner time or bedtime? You just keep on reading and reading. Well, God wants us to have this kind of intense interest in listening to what He has to say.
On this subject, Proverbs 1:5 says: "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning." There, God gives us at least one reason why He wants us to be swift to hear His word. He wants to increase our learning so that we can get divine guidance.
It's terribly costly to send a child to college these days, isn't it? But most of us want our children to have a college education so that hopefully they will have the knowledge and skill to make a good living later on in life. There's nothing wrong with that.
But as James later reminds us, our life is like a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes. Whether we have a successful career in this short life, therefore, is rather immaterial when we consider that our soul will existeither in heaven or in hellthroughout eternity afterwards. What we really need to learn is divine truths about God and our salvation. And they can only be found in the Bible. Thankfully, we don't have to pay any tuition for seeking the wisdom of God.
Taming the tongue. Besides being quick to listen, verse 19 also tells us to be slow to speak and slow to wrath, or slow to become angry.
Most of us like to talk. We like to give our opinions on whatever we think we know something about. But Proverbs 10:19 says, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise."
Do you know why? It is because it is "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34). And the heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9).
This holds true with Christians as well as unbelievers. Although we have become saved, we still have a human nature that rebels against God. For that reason, we often disagree with that which God teaches in the Bible. Sometimes, we even get angry with those who show us the truth.
That's dangerous. Remember what Jesus told the disciples when He sent them out to preach? Matthew 10:14,15:
Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet...It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.So, when we get angry at those who faithfully teach us truths from the Bible just because what they say is different from our personal opinions or different from what we've been taught elsewhere, we are really rejecting God Himself.True, we should beware of false prophets, especially since we are living in these end-time days. And there are indeed many pastors who are more than glad to tell people what their itching ears want to hear. How can we tell whom to believe? Answer: Follow the example of the Bereans. Acts 17 tells us that they examined the Scriptures every day to find out if what Paul had told them was true. Because of that, God goes out of His way to record in the Bible that they are of more noble character than some other believers.
A case history. During the final years of Ancient Israel, the Jews were very rebellious. God sent Jeremiah to warn them that He would deliver them into the hands of their enemy. But there were then other prophets who assured the Jews that everything was all right. The people liked what they heard from those false prophets, and so they argued with Jeremiah. In fact, so angry were they with him that they lowered him into a dry well and let him starve there.
What happened in the end? Jeremiah's warning came true. The Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem. They rescued Jeremiah, however.
When we get angry against those preachers or teachers who faithfully bring us the word of God, we are rejecting God Himself. Such a behavior, verse 20 says, "worketh not the righteousness of God."
Be teachable. Now verse 21:
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.As true followers of Christ, we should get rid of the moral filth and the evil that characterized our former life. Instead, we should receive the word with meekness. That means we do not let our pride and stubbornness keep us from learning the truth.It says that the word is "engrafted" in us. That passive verb suggests that God is the One who does the grafting. But one doesn't get saved by God and immediately knows everything in the Bible. God's plan calls for us doing our share. We need to regularly study and meditate on the word.
I'm sure you have heard this a million times. But believe me, being familiar with the word is a super blessing. That's why God devotes the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, to tell us so. From my own experience, I can testify that it has brought me more peace and joy than I could ever imagine.
The warning. Now verse 22. Here comes that admonition that I spoke of at the beginning. It says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Put another way, if you merely listen to God's word but do not obey it, you are only deceiving yourselves.
This is actually the second time in James 1 that God warns us against fooling ourselves. Earlier, after He has said that our failure to resist temptation could ultimately lead to death, He says in verse 16, "Do not err." Later on in this chapter, he will issue this warning yet again, showing how serious He considers this problem to be.
At any rate, God wants us to do what the word says. Most of us don't have any problem using the Bible to find faults with others. When the pastor preaches on a certain subject, we sometimes say, "I hope that so-and-so hears this." But God wants us to use the Bible to examine ourselves. He says in verses 23-25:
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.Self-inspection. When our hair is unkempt, we look in the mirror to see how best to comb it. When we men have a beard on our face in the morning, we look in the mirror to see where to shave. In other words, we use the mirror to find out what's wrong with our appearance so that we can correct it. Likewise, God wants us to examine ourselves in the light of His word to see where in our life are we deficient.Specifically, three steps are involved. First, we should look into the perfect law intently. The word intently means purposefully. God wants us to study the Bible with the resolute intention of finding our own faults. Second, we are to do it continually. We need to examine ourselves day after day, and year after year. Finally, remembering what we have discovered, we do something about it.
If we do look into God's word intently, we cannot help but discover that in many areas in our life we have indeed fallen far short. Perhaps we are still dominated by our pride. Perhaps we are still unforgiving. Perhaps we enjoy gossip too much. Perhaps we are angry with a fellow believer instead of loving him. If you find yourself having failed to live to God's glory in any of these areas, ask the Lord for strength to change yourself. Swallow your pride. Live obediently to Christ, who gave His life for us. You will have victory because, as the last part of verse 25 promises, he who puts the word of God into practice will be blessed in what he does.
Orphans and widows. Now, we come to the final two verses of James One. Let me comment on the last verse first. Verse 27:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.It's easy to understand why God tells Christians, who should strive to be pure and faultless, to keep themselves from being defiled by the world. But why should we limit our care only for orphans and widows? What about those who suffer from other kinds of maladies? Surely, Christians should have compassion for them, too.To better understand this statement, we need to remember that the Bible is often written in figures of speech, and that God is more concerned with a man's eternal soul than his physical needs. Jesus illustrates the latter dramatically when He tells the parable about Lazarus and the rich man.
In Psalm 68:4,5, we read: "Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation." Clearly, the fatherless and widows there refer to believers. James 1:27 is thus talking about those whom God has chosen to save, but who have yet to become saved inasmuch as they are still in their affliction.
Sharing the gospel. How do we care for these lost sheep? By bringing them the gospel. Not knowing whom God's elect are, we simply send it to as many people as possible.
Putting all this together, we can now see how God wants Christians to relate to His word. First, be quick to listen and not argue with it. Humbly accept it and then try to be so familiar with it that it becomes implanted in us. Use it intently and continually to see which areas of our life need to be purified and, with God's help, proceed to do so. Finally, share the gospel with others.
Before I close, I have to back up to verse 26, which I skipped earlier. It reads:
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.Remember what Jesus says about our tongue? "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." What comes out from our mouth is a reflection of the condition of our heart. A person who does not tame his tongue is one who still has a hardened and unsaved heart. Such a person may consider himself to be a Christian. But because his heart is not right with God, the spiritual front that he puts up is altogether worthless. He is just deceiving himself.This is the third time in this chapter God warns us against being self-deceived. By this repetition, God is declaring unequivocally that faith without obedience is worthless. Faith without deeds is dead. A Christian who calls himself a Christian but does not live an increasing holy life is still under the damnation of God.
May God have mercy on us, and give us a saving faith, a faith that is manifested by a sincere and growing desire to obey every command in the Bible. o